Mehrstimmige Gesänge op. 111
Three Songs op. 111b
for four-part women’s choir
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No. 1 Im Himmelreich ein Haus steht
Text: Note: Spervogel I (um 1180), neudeutsch von Will Vesper
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No. 2 Abendgang im Lenz
Text: L. Rafael
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No. 3 Er ist's
Text: Eduard Mörike
- Mehrstimmige Gesänge op. 111 for Frauenstimmen
Other parts:
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- -
1.
| Reger-Werkausgabe | Bd. II/10: Werke für Männer-, Frauen- und Kinderchor, S. 142–147. |
| Herausgeber | Christopher Grafschmidt und Claudia Seidl. Unter Mitarbeit von Knud Breyer und Stefan König. |
| Verlag | Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart; Verlagsnummer: CV 52.817. |
| Erscheinungsdatum | Oktober 2024. |
| Notensatz | Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart. |
| Copyright | 2024 by Carus-Verlag, Stuttgart and Max-Reger-Institut, Karlsruhe – CV 52.817. Vervielfältigungen jeglicher Art sind gesetzlich verboten. / Any unauthorized reproduction is prohibited by law. Alle Rechte vorbehalten. / All rights reserved. |
| ISMN | 979-0-007-31440-8. |
| ISBN | 978-3-89948-464-9. |
No. 1 Im Himmelreich ein Haus steht
„Im Himmelreich ein Haus steht“
Note: Spervogel I (um 1180), neudeutsch von Will Vesper
„Im Himmelreich ein Haus steht“, in:
Codex Manesse, Zürich
„Im Himmelreich ein Haus steht“, in:
Die Ernte aus acht Jahrhunderten deutscher Lyrik, ed. by Will Vesper, Wilhelm Langewiesche-Brandt, Düsseldorf and Leipzig
Copy shown in RWA: DE, Karlsruhe, Max-Reger-Institut/Elsa-Reger-Stiftung.
Note: Neuzeitliche Ausgaben in Deutsche Liederdichter des zwölften, dreizehnten und vierzehnten Jahrhunderts, hrsg. von Friedrich Heinrich von der Hagen, Leipzig 1838, Band 2, S. 376, sowie in Des Minnesangs Frühling, hrsg. von Karl Lachmann und Moriz Haupt, Leipzig 1857, S. 28.
No. 2 Abendgang im Lenz
L. Rafael: Abendgang im Lenz., in:
Hedwig Kiesekamp: Ebbe und Flut. Gedichte von L. Rafael, Leipzig
[Possibly] First edition
Copy shown in RWA: DE, Münster, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, 55 Okt 1696.
No. 3 Er ist's
Eduard Mörike: Er ist’s, in:
id.: Maler Nolten. Novelle in zwei Theilen, vol. 2, Stuttgart
unknown
Used for comparison purposes in RWA: Eduard Mörike: Er ist’s, in:
Die Ernte aus acht Jahrhunderten deutscher Lyrik, ed. by Will Vesper, Wilhelm Langewiesche-Brandt, Düsseldorf and Leipzig
Copy shown in RWA: DE, Karlsruhe, Max-Reger-Institut/Elsa-Reger-Stiftung.
Note: Auch erschienen in Eduard Mörike, Gedichte, Stuttgart u. Tübingen 1838, S. 37.
Note: Reger kannte das Gedicht bereits aus der Vertonung Hugo Wolfs (Nr. 6 der Mörike-Lieder), die er 1904 für Klavier solo bearbeitet hatte (RWV Wolf-B6 Nr. 2).
Note: In T. 38 und 42 verzichtet Reger vor “ein leiser Harfenton” auf die adverbiale Bestimmung “von fern”.
1. Composition
Publication
On 16 January 1909, Reger accompanied the mezzo-soprano Lilly Hadenfeldt in a song recital in Hamburg. She was a member of the Hamburg Women’s Quartet (“Frauenquartett”) and might well have asked Reger to compose choral works for women. These songs in four [opus 111b] and three [opus 111c] parts were first mentioned in mid-May 1909 (along with the Duets with piano, op. 111a) when Reger wrote to Bote & Bock to inform them about the works they could expect to receive from him in the course of the coming year.1 Reger chose exclusively contemporary texts for the Duets, but compiled the texts for his women’s choruses from quite heterogeneous sources: the anonymous mediaeval poet known as Spervogel I (though in a version in modern German), Eduard Mörike and L. Rafael (the last of these being a pseudonym of Hedwig Kiesekamp).
Most of the work on these compositions seems to have been completed by 9 July, because Reger wrote on this day to promise his publisher that by the end of the month they would receive various works including “three women’s choruses for 4 voices that I have also arranged for 3 voices in order that these women’s choruses might be sung more often.”2 Three days later, Reger wrote: “[…] everything’s finished; I’m just looking through everything again extremely carefully.”3 He sent the engraver’s copies for the women’s choruses to his publisher on 26 July, together with the Duets and a suggestion for an overall title. He also offered Hugo Bock, the owner of the publishing house, a gift of “these manuscripts […] after they’ve been printed, to commemorate our first year together”.4 These choruses are dedicated to the Hamburg Women’s Quartet.5
During his summer holidays in Kolberg, Reger wrote that he was “eagerly” awaiting the proofs.6 He received them, and was able to return them on 30 August, having done his correction work without the aid of the engraver’s copies.7 He added: “No need to send me further proofs; but your copy editor should please compare the parts with the 6 scores one more time!”8
Reger was also awaiting the first prints “with impatience […] because I need to register my new works with the Association” (i.e. the ‘Genossenschaft Deutscher Tonsetzer’, the German performing rights association).9 On 1 October Reger, approved the title page.10 Two days later, he expressly confirmed receipt of just the first print of the Duets op. 111a, though he also stated with satisfaction that “everything is here and I will immediately register them with the Association”.11
2.
Translation by Chris Walton.
1. Reception
What was presumably the first performance of the four-part version [opus 111b] of Im Himmelreich ein Haus steht (“A house stands in heaven”, no. 1) was given by the Hamburg Women’s Quartet in Hamburg’s Church of St Gertrude on 26 November 1909, at a concert in aid of local community welfare.1 The earliest documented complete performance of the choruses took place in Frankfurt am Main on 2 March 1911, under the direction of Margarete Dessoff – though we do not know whether this was of the version in three parts or four. The reviewer for the Kleine Presse reported how people had eagerly anticipated these “three small choruses by Max Reger, who in ‘Im Himmelreich ein Haus steht’ in particular modulates after the manner of the Old Masters, which conversely makes him sound modern. These modulations seem a bit more contrived in ‘Abendgang im Lenz’ [‘An evening walk in spring’], while his setting of Mörike’s little spring song ‘Er ist’s’ [‘It’s him’] is undoubtedly the most interesting of these three compositions, despite occasional academic characteristics.”2 It was quite possibly these “academic characteristics” that prompted the reviewer of Reger’s farewell concert as Capellmeister in Meiningen on 20 June 1914 to state that: “[…] this delightful composition nevertheless presents considerable difficulties that stretch beyond the ability of the performers”.3 After a Reger memorial concert in Berlin in October 1916, August Spanuth even wrote of “very difficult a-cappella quartets”. And yet: “The ladies solved their awkward tasks with such success that they had to repeat their last quartet.”4 And in a review that was admittedly only published a good three years after their publication, Franz Rabich recommended these choruses as being “beautiful, light, appealing music for the home”.5
2.
Translation by Chris Walton.
1. Stemma
2. Quellenbewertung
Der Edition liegt als Leitquelle der Erstdruck zugrunde. Als Referenzquelle wurde die Stichvorlage der Nr. 2 sowie der Erstdruck von Opus 111c herangezogen.
3. Sources
- Stichvorlage der Nr. 2
- Erstdruck
Object reference
Max Reger: Three Songs op. 111b, in: Reger-Werkausgabe, www.reger-werkausgabe.de/mri_work_00135.html, version 3.1.4, 11th April 2025.
Information
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